TIPS: Gathering Information about Functional Impacts

Step 4 – Gathering Information about Functional Impacts

Hear from some NDIS participants and carers about information they collected for their NDIS application:

A transcript of this video is here: Transcript-Information

If you have current assessment information about the functional impacts you experience living with psychosocial disability, include this with your access request or tell the NDIA where to find it.

Examples would be an occupational therapy assessment, psychological reports or other psychosocial or functional assessments which include:

1. Information provided by you, your family or carer to Government agencies such as Centrelink (e.g. for the Carer Allowance, Carer Payment or Disability Support Pension)
2. Information provided to state/territory government agencies
3. Needs assessment or outcome tools used to understand the changes you are making in your life. 

This information is sometimes collected by your service providers to understand your treatment and care needs. Mental health services you have accessed may have some of this information. Ask them for a copy to attach to your NDIS access request. If you are not sure if a service or support worker has this information, you can ask them.

The more information you provide to the NDIA, the better they can make a decision about your eligibility.

Some examples of functional assessment tools:

• World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Scale (WHODAS 2)
• Life Skills Profile (LSP-16 or 32)
• Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS)
• Living in the Community Questionnaire (LCQ)
• Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN or CANSAS)
• Recovery Assessment Scale – Domains and Stages (RAS-DS).